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Birds of Paradise Discussion

4 hours ago

Oh, I take back what I said, forget it, sorry about me white-knighting the competitive tag in the past (not far past, but still) and I love the list!

If you really want to make it competitive, I can't promise I can make Arahbo tier 1, but tier 2-3 I can do, as long as you are willing to drop some of the more fun cats, and are able to build up this deck to become a stax-beatdown hybrid.

Okay, so to start, consistency is key, more tutors should be the goal, think Fauna Shaman and Survival of the Fittest type cards, and you'd really want to slow the deck down, which is the opposite of what most people will say.

Effectively I am arguing for stax, but not just stax, also combo, running the combo you already have is fine, Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder, however it doesn't win the game until your next turn unless you already have a large amount of mana, or an Aetherflux Reservoir type effect.

9 hours ago

This is a very land-light deck and Burgeoning will mostly only drop one or two lands maximum for a card. It also doesn't put counters on Animar, can't be tutored for, and is a bad draw at any time except turn one to drop a turn two Animar. Carpet of Flowers more consistently ramps this deck into a turn two Animar and still doesn't deserve a spot because just getting a turn two animar by spending a mana isn't enough, it normally has to either be free like Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox or the similar effects or be a creature like Birds of Paradise.

Venser, Shaper Savant is not useful in the same way Man-o'-War is, being that both can bounce themselves, but Man o' War can do it for half the mana, putting twice the +1/+1 counters that Venser will on Animar. This is a huge difference when you need a number of counters to cast a game-winning spell by turn 4 or trying to win right there.

The point is, I don't see your reason for Swiftfoot Boots or Lightning Greaves, they are two mana non-creature permanents that protect things at sorcery speed, unlike the rest of the answers.

Now while I respect your opinion in your meta on the use and capability of Emrakul, the Promised End, in this deck it commonly reduces it's cost by 1-3 mana, and can be reduced by 4-7 on a mid-sized Animar, Soul of Elements like you said, so 5-10 mana on normal by turns 5-6, or mid game. Even saying it costs is pushing it and if that is the case, you should run it if your meta is overrun with decks that are ruined by it. However due to the top tiered decks normally running a high number of instants that can be used to disable their own ability, think Chain of Vapor, they could commonly stop you from ruining themselves too bad in response to the ability before their turn. Rarely can it do more than a Word of Command because of stuff like that. Even if it just killed target player, like you said about swinging in with a swoll Animar, it doesn't win you the game to kill one player.

Again, that is only the reason that it isn't good enough for JMCraig to toss it in with the goal of this for cEDH decks, but if it works in your playgroup, do it! I have only the best wishes for you and your Animar deck!

You want a backup-backup plan I think was that second-to-last line? I don't understand why you think that is nessecary, but I will go over the plan:

Main Plan : Animar + Statue + Outlet = Win

Backup Plan : Kiki-jiki + Untapper = Win

We have a backup plan, why do you assume we need another?

You seemed to argue for Tishana over Big Kozi, but Kozilek, Butcher of Truth does have other use in the deck, and I would argue is better with a pumped Animar than Tishana. It can be free if you need a wincon and have Ancestral Statued Animar, Soul of Elements to infinity and beyond and just need to win, but don't have much more mana, Kozi is free, also with Survival of the Fittest you can fetch him and discard him to reshuffle your yard back in if you couldn't otherwise get back a card. Due to the discard being the cost, you could then fetch out a card that was in your graveyard when you fetched, making a really cool Primal Command effect for and a Survival of the Fittest.

You have a lot of dinosaurs in there with big prices. That can lead to dead cards in your hand and bad draws. You need more ramp than just the
Drover of the Mighty
. Potentially the Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl combo or Birds of Paradise. A good removal spell you can add as your creatures will almost be garunteed to have higher stats is Beast Within

Also, your creatures are extremely vulnerable to removal spells. I'll give you the choice of how you want to deal with that problem but a good suggestion would be Blossoming Defense
I hope this helps your deck get on a good track. otherwise this deck looks like a lot of fun. :)

I don't really like Baird and Platinum Angel in your deck. Baird is redundant and costly, and without a way to cheat it out or tutor it Angel isn't worth it, especially since removal is gonna build up in your opponent's hand throughout the game. I also question the Birds of Paradises; you don't really need to ramp into things quickly since you have fogs. In their place something like Howling Mine to find more fogs and hit land drops would be better.

3 days ago

When i started playing Bant spirits I had to start with Birds of Paradise and it did just fine its just the exalted that pushes it to the next level in the early game with those points of damage mattering when it comes down to finishing off your opponent. If you would like to see the deck ive had success with you can look here http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bant-spoopy/

1 week ago

After a few more games with the deck, I would like to continue making the deck more threat heavy and resilient against removal. So I made some pretty deep cuts.
The cards on the chopping block are the following:

Mirrorweave - just a little too slow and not good if you are up against any removal heavy decks. Much better against decks that rely on mostly creatures, of which there are not many. Humans is the best aggro deck in the format, yet most of its creatures will have +1/+1 counters on them, so mirrorweave isn't great.

Cytoplast Root-Kin - A big mana commitment for something that will only be good with a few other creatures out. I would rather just have removal instead, or a more robust standalone threat.

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar- Gets overrun easily if you are losing, and gets hit by lightning bolts after the -2. There are other more robust cards that have a similar effect. However, it is a standalone threat against an empty board that can be hard to get rid of for control, so it may be a sideboard card.

Birds of Paradise - I don't have too many things to ramp into at 3 mana, so I think I am better off running something that I want to draw late game, like Oath of Nissa, which can give me a land early, or a creature late, and isn't just going to die to removal like birds does. I might run 1 more land, and 3 oaths.

Hangarback Walker - not an aggressive card. Even if it does dodge removal, no one cares about it enough to kill it. Mostly blocks, and there's not a ton of blocking in modern.

Replacements:

Abzan Ascendancy - a replacement for nissa that is a bit more robust, and better against the decks with a mix of creatures and removal. It triggers bloodhall ooze twice, and works well with the graft stuff. It also triggers when my ballista or simic initiate runs out of counters.

Dromoka's Command - This deck needs some more removal, but I think it's also important to run cards that are synergystic with the deck. This card fills that role fairly well, especially with a hardened scales out. However, it is dependent on having a creature out, and can be interrupted by removal from the opponent, which is a little iffy.

Oath of Nissa - Our replacement for birds of paradise to act as our 22-24th lands. It also gets most of the stuff in the deck, which means it's a really good late game drop vs. the birds. It also gets us to our key cards like ballista and constrictor more consistently. Plus it sticks around as a green permanent for bloodhall ooze! That's way more important than you might think.

Bloodbraid Elf - I had this card on my list for a while and only recently considered it. It's a powerhouse with a lot of the cards in this deck, since the cascaded spell gets cast first. For instance, anafenza enters the battlefield, and then immediately triggers on Bloodbraid, which can make it a huge hasty creature with a hardened scales out. Same with simic initiate, dromokas command, and plaxcaster. The rest of the time it just gives you so much value. The only card that doesn't work with it is walking ballista, but even that can trigger the anafenza and ascendancy, so it's not horrible.

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